Starlight: Redshift

by the-pieman

Chapter 64

“I think I’m gonna name him... uh.” I pause, realising I can’t come up with a good nickname for Bellsprout. “Brute-Root? No, too Venasaurish.” I turn to Twi and Rarity. “You got any ideas?”

It’s been nearly an hour since I caught that scrappy little Bellsprout, and I already can’t wait to evolve him to a Weepinbell and then a Victreebel. A tougher pokémon is always a plus.

The girls both give oddly exasperated sighs and tell me they don’t have any ideas. Man, they seem so glum now. Wonder why. “Oh well I’ll come up with a name later. So I’ve been talking about Bellsprout for an hour or so now... what’s on your minds?”

“Ooh, well, Anthony, I’m mostly just waiting to see if there’s any place to rest soon. These roots are doing terrible things to my hoo-, er feet.” Rarity says, sounding exhausted. Admittedly, the last half hour or so has been mostly uphill and downhill over rough roots, but still, it’s not that big of a deal.

“Well, I don’t know if we’ll find another clearing or not, and if we do, it might be inhabited.” I warn. “Wouldn’t want to tangle with claimed territory.”

The girls sigh and nod. We keep going until we find a small copse of trees isolated from the others nearby with a thirty-foot clearing of open grass. Pausing at the exterior, I can smell a sweet scent and hear the buzzing of insectoid wings... and I can see a few of those hummingbird pokémon, too, the smaller ones that only make one note. What’s on the trees is what takes my breath away.

A bunch of what are clearly Heracross are tending the trees and getting sap and nectar, but they’re in a fairly diverse set of colors and patterns!

Rather than the standard deep blue, the most attention grabbing one is a nice buttery yellow color with a black belly, and a different-looking horn. I consider making another capture, but I recall I’m low on pokéballs. Another that wanders by has almost no horns, and is mottled cream and black, with a red shell, and is noticeably half again as big as the yellow one, who is almost half again taller than the normal Heracross that are also here.

This brings a whole new level to how diverse pokémon really get. These are the kinds of things that the guys at Game Freak definitely should have put in the games. That said, if they tried, they’d have to drastically limit how many different species of Pokémon are available in order to leave enough memory space. Or, you know, move the games onto a console. That would be nice but I kind of like having my Pokémon in my pocket. They aren’t called ‘Television Monsters’ or anything after all.

That said, as cool as these all are, we’ve all gotten a new pokémon. Well, except Twilight, but she seems content to just look.

After a while of watching the beetles drink tree sap and generally fly around, none of them really pay us much mind, other than one that’s larger than the rest and has a rainbow-colored carapace. “Hera?” it says, looking more curious than anything.

“Just passing through.” I inform the Bug/Fighting type. I figure the sooner we’re out of here the better. These pokémon don’t seem too used to humans this far into the forest and we wouldn’t want one of them thinking we’re a threat.

The Heracross nods, and waves towards the copse of trees, welcomingly. There’s plenty of space to sit down and the like, and a couple of the hummingbird-looking pokémon come down to investigate the girls and I. They make their own humming notes, and even I can identify that they’re humming a chord between them.

Hmmm, speaking of music, I wonder if the éTech has a music-playing app. Would be nice to have some travelling music. Either way, figuring it would be rude to deny a warm welcome like this, we sit down and wait for whatever they have planned. It’s a shame Fluttershy wouldn’t be able to leave her animals in Equestria to come here. I think she’d like it a lot with all the birds.

The pokémon go back to their lives, but it’s extremely peaceful in this little glade, a fallen log acting as a good sitting spot. Rarity lets her own pokémon out, smiling as she looks around, pulling her éTech out to do something, a stylus in hand. I’m not sure where she got it, but the motions she’s making suggests she’s drawing. Twilight is squatting down to look at the more inquisitive pokémon coming up to her, such as a Happiny, an Eevee with a ‘mask’ pattern, and a Venipede with an almost wavy, watery-looking pattern on its shell. All of them seem inquisitive and interested, not skittish.

I decide to just relax. We’ve technically already done that today with the Clefairy, but I suppose we’re not really in a rush. Stop and smell the Roserade and all that. Just... there’s nothing to do besides sit around.

Speaking of Roserade... or, rather, Budew, one comes close, toddling up towards me, with a white-and-orange bud atop its head.

The pokémon around here seem to have all kinds of variations unseen in the fields and smaller forests. I figured that there’d be all kinds of subspecies, but I never really imagined any alternate looks for pokémon outside of Generations one and two.

I just look around at all the Grass types and such. Supposedly this forest takes up a huge chunk of Otaria, and with all the thick foliage it seems hard to believe that so many clearings would exist here. Probably a result of trainers trying to make more of a trail through it. Though I see a lot of fallen logs, I don’t see many stumps so it’s unlikely most of these are the result of log-cutting.

The mat of roots and vines along the ground do however seem to form a carpet that looks more natural and less alive than the Creep from Starcraft, green and brown rather than a sickly purple-red and not pulsing or slimy.

I hear a faint sound from the log under my rear, and shift to see what it is. Inside the hollow log, a trio of Shroomish are looking up at me, each with a slightly different pattern of spots and colors, including one that looks just like the mushrooms on a Paras’ back. The inside of the log also has a sleeping Venipede, and some cobweb-looking strands all over. “Shrum!” one of the mushroom pokémon says, looking at me with its... head tilted. Its body? Its torso? I’m not sure what to call that part of it. The not-feet?

Either way I’m not sure what the Shroomish want, but they don’t seem to have a problem with us being here so they’re just curious I guess. Again, not many people come this way. I just give it a wave and continue looking around to see what there is to see. While it is light enough to see close by, the canopy isn’t allowing enough light to see more than a few meters by so I wave my éTech around to see what I may be missing on the edges of the clearing.

The clearing itself is pretty and pristine, but I can see a few leering eyes and dangerous shapes in the forest beyond the clearing, including the shape of a Nuzleaf.

I decide to follow Rarity’s example and let my pokémon out, though mainly for protection. If they want to play and explore though I suppose that’s fine. I send out Litwick and Chantlette to just play with each other or whatever they’ll do.

The two pokémon stick to the shade, but do seem to be socializing with the other pokémon. This includes Chantlette managing to climb atop a gigantic Heracross and get a shoulder-ride around at a veritable snail’s pace.

She seems to be enjoying it though. You know, I know my pokémon’s levels, but I don’t really know their ages. Litwick could be anywhere from a child to a hundred or something, being a ghost type, and while the others may not have the same range, they are still a mystery. Geodude does act the most mature of them though.

Still, from the way they act, I’d say Litwick’s probably the youngest, maturity-wise, or maybe Chantlette. They’ve both got the ‘I’m totally serious now’ while still being silly and carefree attitudes that come with being almost a real teen.

So there’s not much going on, and Speaking of Geodude I’ve never seen him fight a serious Grass type. Would be interesting to see a fight between him and a Heracross too. He doesn’t get out as much as everyone else wither so... I just look to the tree with all the Heracross on it. “Anyone up for a battle? Just for fun?”

“Geez Anthony,” Twilight starts. “Again? I mean you just got Bellsprout.”

Oh yeah, I need to come up with a good nickname. Either way, one of the Heracross, a yellow-shelled one that’s twice as large as a normal one, trundles over with its head on level with mine and tilts its head, poking a finger towards me, and giving a querying, “Cross?”

I ignore Twilight and just say “You’ll do.” I toss out Geodude and stand up from the log. Rarity looks up but soon goes back to her drawing. Whatever she’s doing must be important. Geodude bursts from his Premier ball already in a battle stance. He looks at the Heracross then at me and back at the Heracross, holding it’s fists closer to it’s body.

Okay, Bug and Fighting... Ground won’t be very effective, but with the type defenses and weaknesses, Rock should be just fine. Not sure how high level it is but that should be okay as long as Geodude dodges any Fighting moves. The Heracross offers a handshake to Geodude, who takes it, and they move back to acceptable distances. “Okay then, Rock Throw!” I can always call for Smack Down if the Heracross tries flying.

Geodude slams a hand underground, hauling out a respectably large boulder to huck, which the Heracross simply smashes apart with its horn. Can Heracross learn Rock Smash, or was that another move used for this purpose?

It could be Brick Break, I know they can learn that. I may have to use a Ground move, but for other reasons than straight damage, but I need to stay away or the next rock mashed up could be Geodude... or he just needs to be fast enough to dodge. “Rock Polish!”

Geodude begins to follow through, as the Heracross closes its eyes, and gets into a pose that makes it look like its charging a hadoken. An orange-red-brown aura coats its arm, and just as Geodude finishes the Rock Polish, the Heracross lashes out, smashing Geodude right in the face, a loud ‘CRACK’ echoing through the clearing, and Geodude goes cross eyed as he lands, ten feet behind where he started, half-embedded in a tree.

“You okay, Geodude?” That could only have been Arm Thrust, and that had to hurt. Maybe I should have gone with Defense Curl instead.

“Duuude...” Geodude says, blinks several times, until his eyes clear back to their normal position, and he tries pulling himself out of the tree. Unfortunately, a combination of sticky sap and a lack of leverage is keeping him stuck. It’s like a Crusader event, but with pokémon.

Tree sap and pine needles aside, I jog over to Geodude and help unstick him. He’s naturally got a chunk of sap stuck to his side, but I can’t do much about it. It’s picking up all kinds of debris and making him kinda mossy.

“Still got this?” Geodude pauses for a moment, then nods, putting his fists up in a fighting stance again. “Alright, then how about we try a Spin Dash, you up for that?” Heracross looks a bit confused at the name, obviously being a name it’s never heard of. Combo moves do tend to have a leg-up on normal moves anyways.

The Heracross begins to do its own charge-up for another Arm Thrust or what have you as Geodude charges his own spin, and the two finish their lead-up almost at the same time, the two attacks hitting mid-sequence and sending a concussive blast around the field and a blast of dirt, dust, and small debris. The closed-in trees around the clearing do little to cushion the sound and it echoes like a staccato. That said, Geodude put his full-body weight into that strike, that has to be enough mass travelling fast enough to at least match a decent fighting-type move, Rock type or no, right?

The debris clears and the other forest pokémon return to see the aftermath, as interested as I am. Geodude and Heracross both stand up... well, Heracross stands up while Geodude pulls himself up with his arms. I can tell by the looks on their faces that both of them are pretty out of it right now. Neither is going to last much longer at this rate.

I could pull out my last Super Potion and juice up Geodude, and just trash this Heracross, but it should be saved for an emergency. I figure item usage wouldn’t really help much either, and most of my heavy-hitting moves are Ground type so... might as well go with a classic Tackle. It does have the same base attack as Rock Throw anyways, just no STAB. “Tackle it!”

Geodude prepares for his attack, but stops when the Heracross raises a hand in a ‘pause’ gesture, then makes ‘no more’ motions.

“Right, sorry. Forgot nobody’s gonna take you to a Pokémon Center afterwards.” I rub my head and recall Geodude. “Hey Rarity, you got any spare Oran berries for this one?”

Rarity is busy working on something on her éTech, and doesn’t hear me, but a Grotle trundles out of the grove with a pair of Oran berry bushes on its back. The Heracross takes a few and nods back to the Grotle, who seems perfectly fine playing medic.

“Well, that works, thanks guys. I tend to get carried away.”

“Cross cross.” The large beetle-pokémon says, waving it off.

“Good, glad we got that settled. Now then, I wanna try something.” I take out my éTech and scan Geodude to check his status. HP is indeed in the red, but he can move at least and... yes, he levelled up from a brutal fight like that. If memory serves, he should be able to use Bulldoze. That’ll come in handy. I give Geodude my thanks and return him, planning to keep him out of the metaphorical game until I can heal him up.

I do note that with all the fighting and debris being kicked up, some of the forest floor has been torn up. Bound to happen when a Fighting type goes against a Rock/Ground but jeez. “You guys can fix this, right?”

A few of the grass and bug-types in the area nod, and sure enough it’s all stitched together and neat, with new grass planted in less than a minute. Looking back over my companions, I see that Twilight is snapping a picture of the masked Eevee, and Rarity is sucking on the end of her stylus, or chewing it, I’m not sure which.

Well, they can be disinterested all they want, it’s not doing them any favors. Granted that fight put Geodude pretty out of it as well so I guess I only halfway benefitted from that. Oh well, not everything goes perfectly.

It takes some time but eventually the girls are done doing whatever and we move on, the various pokémon waving us goodbye. “So what’s got you so focused, Rarity?” I ask, noting that she barely looked up once from her éTech.

She doesn’t respond, but does doodle something on her éTech. Y’know, I do wonder what’s on there that has her attention so fully. I back up and look over her shoulder and see that she’s been designing some sort of outfit, based on a nature theme. Guess she got inspiration from the forest or somesuch, but now that we’re out of the clearing and not on a road of any kind... “It’s a bit dangerous to not be watching out for potential danger, you know.”

She flicks the page, revealing the next outfit over, which is a snazzy suit in wood browns and forest greens, with a picture of one of the larger hummingbird pokémon on the breast pocket, and it looks much nicer than the others. She flicks past it, and reveals six doodles crammed onto the page, each of a different dress with what are very obviously pokémon-themed motifs, including one made for ponies with a shroomish motif in the red-and-white speckles pattern of the odd one that had been hiding in the log.

I never saw her look up once, how did she see them? The next doodle catches my attention even more, because it’s of a long, serpentine green pokémon with small arms on its upper torso, looking like it’s in flight, and while I recognize it, it’s also got large, red-gold feathers in place of the fins and sails I’d expect of it.

“Where’d you see a Rayquaza...” I ask aloud. “Those things don’t leave the upper atmosphere unless you tick one off.”

“Hmm? Oh, I saw it going by above. It looks really quite elegant...” she says, voice trailing off as she flips to the next page, which has a pair of dress designs made for it, one for ponies and one for humans, and it calls forth images of a Rayquaza in flight and the serpentine grace of the pokémon, all smooth lines and fiery color contrast.

“You’d certainly be the toast of Chinese New Year with an outfit like that.” I note. “Though the feathers might be a bit out of place. Have you considered a more Celtic dragon design instead?”

“Hmm? I’m not sure what you mean. Oh, I took a picture of it, if you’d like to see.” she says, and does something to get to her pictures folder, and shows off an indistinct picture, though it matches the drawing she made. I’m not sure why it has the red-gold colored feathers, though.

“A Celtic dragon looks a bit like this.” I say, holding up my own éTech and showing her a picture I got off the net. “Still kinda snakey but more of a regal, spiky look to them.”

“Hmm... perhaps, but I suppose I’d have to see one. That looks like a nice design, but I’d rather not just poach an icon wholesale.” she says.

“I get the feeling.” I say. “So you gonna get some more fabric by pawning off another diamond and sending one of these home?”

“Perhaps. I might simply save the ideas for when we get home, or ask for a delivery of Bits the next time Twilight sends a message back; we can get small things or send them perfectly fine.”

“Yeah, you guys have a weird currency system.”

“We’re weird?” Twilight asks. “You’re the ones who think gold and clear diamonds are worth much. I can’t even believe how much that diamond went for. The conversion rate is pretty imbalanced if you ask me.”

I shrug. “Probably because what’s rare to us is common to you. Like selling salt to desert-folk.”

“Why would desert-folk want salt?” Twilight asks confusedly.

“Well, think of it this way: You live in a place where keeping things cool can be difficult, and that means food spoils quickly. Before the discovery of refrigerators and the like, salt was used to preserve food to keep it from spoiling as fast. And since that was their food, it was more useful to them than whatever forms of currency they have. So you could go over to, say, ancient Saddle Arabia, give them a couple four-pound bags of salt and walk away with a truckload of Bits with both sides feeling like they got a fair trade. Economics.”

“Well... I... suppose...” Twilight says, looking like she’s doing all the calculations in her head to figure out the full implications.

Rarity looks up. “It’s why I purchase Fancee Silk, or make my own, rather than buy Saddle Arabian, because it’s cheaper but of the same quality. As well, it’s cheaper for Pinkie and the Cakes to get their cooking supplies from Vanhoofer’s general area, or near Appleoosa, than it is to buy them from somewhere nearer to Canterlot, where there’s less arable ground. Different places have different goods for trade and sale, and need other goods more.” done with her commentary, she goes back to drawing, humming something under her breath.

“Yeah.” I say. “That pretty much covers it. Us bringing Bits in from Equestria and using them as currency here would be like that, only it’s trans-dimensional rather than continental. Don’t tell me Celestia’s star pupil fell asleep during Geography like C- Student Anthony...”

She shakes her head. “I, uhm, never studied economics.” she says, blushing hard and refusing to meet my eyes. Admittedly, since she’s currently in human form, it’s kinda cute, but still. I can’t let her live this down, it’s something she could know, but doesn’t, and I do!

“I’ll just stick this next to pokémon on my list of things I got over you and let the rest of this slide.” I grin, giving Twilight a squeeze. Damn her making a cute, easily-forgiven human. With a squeak and a sigh, Twilight lets it it go as well and we get ready to continue walking. Not much to see in the dark shadows all around us as Rarity packs in her éTech, and we head off once more.

Three minor encounters and another short pit stop to cuddle a few Eevee and a Leafeon with a blood-red leaf coloration, like a Japanese Maple’s leaves, and we find our way to another clearing as night begins to fall. Another day, another few dozen miles traveled through this dark forest. I get a map of the forest again, but with GPS being a bit fritzy with all the tree-cover it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly how close we actually are to getting out. The forest is nice but not something I’d like to deal with for a lot longer.

The girls set up their hammocks and I do the same though they fall asleep almost immediately while I’m struck by another bout of insomnia, so I just let my mind wander. Admittedly my imagination doesn’t want to be kind to me in the dark, shadow-covered forest. It’s practically pitch black everywhere I look. I see all kinds of strange shapes in the forest and while I know that it’s just pokemon, indicated by the noises they make as the nocturnal species start waking up. I just pull out my éTech and see if I can’t find some simple puzzle game to pass the time. I find one similar to Tetris Attack and start playing that, though I see something move out of the corner of my eye. This happens, but usually it goes away. This time the shape walks into the clearing, likely attracted by my light. That said, putting out said light would mean they would see me while I couldn’t see them so I switch the device back to a flashlight and aim it in the general direction of the shape.

A pale, blue-white shape moves out of the darkness, faintly glowing from the light of my éTech, and I realize from the shape that it’s a Meganium, evidently shiny or simply different in subspecies, a wide frill of silvery petals fanning out from the base of its neck, and a pair of little heads peek up from behind those petals on its back, revealing them to be a pair of little Chikorita of the same colors, and a Bayleef follows behind, looking a bit shy.

The small family moves into the shafts of moonlight pouring into the clearing, seeming to gleam like milky marble, and they all open their leaves and petals as far as they’ll go, and the two Chikorita hop down off their parent to toddle around the clearing.

I take a moment to stare at the adorable little Grass types as they wander around, occasionally giving a yawn here and there. One of them wanders up to my hammock but is called back by its parent. The little one just seems to be smiling a lot, and wanders back into the moonlight, until the larger of the two Chikorita begins to gleam brightly, glowing more and more until its light fills the clearing. After a moment, a smallish Bayleef is standing in its place, the light fading.

You know, one of these days I’m going to get some of these spectacular forest-night events on camera and show the girls what they miss by sleeping all the time. I mean, I usually end up dead tired from lack of sleep more often than any other reason, but still, a nightlife is important too.

A yawn escapes me though and I begin to feel drowsy. There isn’t a whole lot of nightlife to be had in a forest anyway. I watch the family do their moonbathing while I get comfortable in my hammock, sleep slowly taking me as I yawn again. With a third yawn I decide to continue my thinking in the morning.

---

It’s been two days, and we’ve travelled far enough that GPS has kicked in again. We’re only about three hours from our campsite to the main road leading into town. We’re all worse for the wear, but I honestly can’t say we’d have had as much fun or seen as many amazing things on the road itself. Nevertheless...

“Ugh, I can’t wait to get to a lodge or something and get a shower.”

“Seconded.” Rarity says, sighing.

“Or sleep in a real bed.” Twilight adds.

I sigh in agreement. “But don’t forget we’re just seeing a few sights then passing through. That desert is our real obstacle.”

“Right. But at least we won’t be tripping on roots and wiping spiderwebs out of hair every three steps.”

Speak for yourself, I think the webs are helping keep my hair neat and shiny. “Yeah, but don’t forget the desert will have it’s own problems like Trapinch and such.”

We just continue in silence until we finally see what looks like a path. Not so much a dirt road as parts of the ground that have been walked on plenty of times, pointing us in the right direction out of here. We start talking about Crevasse rather than the forest for a change.

“So given the environment, we’re likely to see a few Electric types.” it’s then that I realize that I’m the only one with a Ground type in our party. “But it’s a populated area, not a cave like Chargestone, so the pokémon should be mostly safe.”

We start our trek up a long series of winding stairs, thankfully all shallow and wide, easy to climb. That said, I wouldn’t mind a ladder. All the time in that forest not to mention thus far has been mostly horizontal travel, and I’m getting that occasional itch to climb something. I can see that a definite place we’ll end up on is a mountain, but that’s too far off from now. Maybe the next Gym will have a climbing challenge.

We finally make our way to the top of the slopes, and look down at what would normally be a massive gap in the mountain... but instead is a massive gap in the world, strung side to side with hanging bridges and buildings held in place by a massive network of chains, webbing, ropes, vines, and uncountable numbers of other forms of binding everything together, forming a roughly eight-layered city hanging in mid-air. It’s like an acrophobic’s worst nightmares all cobbled together. Plenty of flying and climbing pokemon abound, and in the darkness below, small flashes and rumbles of lightning-like discharges light off.

I take a deep breath. “On second thought, maybe we should keep this visit short.”

“What? But we spent the last few hours talking about the stuff we might be able to do and see.” Twilight says confusedly. “What’s changed your mind?”

“How about the fact that I don’t do good with heights. I like climbing stuff but I’ve got some pretty bad acrophobia.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really. Now let’s go and get this over with alright?”

“But... well... this just sort of comes out of nowhere you know, you never mentioned-”

“You never asked.” I reply shortly. I steel myself and take a breath as I test the bridge. It takes several weeks, or a few minutes I’m not sure, but I make it to the city where Twilight and Rarity are waiting for me. “There, I did it, are you happy?”

“Yes, we can finally move on. Really, it makes no sense that you’d suddenly have a fear of heights.”

“It is not sudden, I’ve been this way since I was little!”

“I’ve never seen any evidence of-”

“Name one time you’ve seen me look out the train window on a trip up or down Mt. Canter.”

Twilight opens her mouth to respond but then puts a hand on her chin. “Okay, I guess I just never noticed the evidence.”

“Good, now the sooner I forget the fact that we’re on a floating city, the sooner I’ll feel better.”

“Well, it’s not really floating, so much as suspended by an impressive array of-”

“Not. Helping.” I hiss, getting Twilight to shut up. I just walk into the city proper. “Like I said, the best thing for me to do is forget, and I know one quick way to forget.”

Twilight thinks for a minute, as does Rarity. Twilight comes to a conclusion first. “But, me wiping a memory that small would take a lot of power and time, I’m not sure I could-”

I facepalm. “I meant get plastered to the fucking floor.” At the failure to understand the metaphor, I sigh again. “Drunk, I’m talking about getting drunk!”

“Oooh...” Twilight says, as Rarity rolls her eyes.

Rarity gives her own suggestion, “Either way, though, we should at least see some of the sights, and simply concentrate on not looking for a particular one that has phobias attached.”

“Just a bit of liquid courage and I’ll be all for that, right now, I’m tense as a weasel on the first day of Spring.” I’m highly doubting they’ll get that reference, but I don’t really care this time so I just look around for... I’m not sure, I’ve never been to this place before, I don’t know what a bar would look like.

“Uhm, okay then.” is the only response I get, but that’s about what I expected. We quickly head towards the Pokécenter first, and get inside. It’s got a rustic charm, mostly made of wood and metal panels, but I get a momentary panic attack when I look down to check out the floor mural and find that the white half of the pokeball is just clear glass looking into the abyss beneath us.

Walking to the counter while staying as far away from the glass, I hand Joy my Pokéballs and sit down on a couch, sighing heavily.

“Wait...” Twilight asks. “We’re right above the canyon, but you’re fine as long as you can’t see the way down?”

“You don’t have an irrational fear of heights, you don’t get it. The main point is that it’s irrational.”

“And as a rational person you are still affected?”

“The second part of that is ‘fear’ which is a lot harder to rationalize than, say, mind-sucking aliens, or mutant parasites that implant themselves into your memories and telepathically befriend you so they can suck out your internal organs and sell them on the intergalactic black market.”

“... Those both sound pretty silly.” Twilight says, as Rarity talks up the Nurse behind the counter.

“Just get me a couple drinks and I should be buzzed enough to not care.” I say, waving her disbelief off. “I’m a lightweight, should take three bottles, maybe two if I chug them fast.”

“I have no idea where I’d even get alcohol, Anthony. I didn’t see any buildings labeled as a bar, pub, inn, or other alcohol-serving establishment.”

I give a heavy sigh. “Of course not... Oh well, guess I’ll have to find some other way to get my mind off things.” I look around the Center for some sort of distraction but my eyes gravitate to the glassed floor again, making me push myself closer to the couch.

Twilight just sighs. “What were the things Pinkie suggested for helping you calm down again?” I wait for her to recall, and I get a good idea when given her facial expression, she recalls the suggestion of ‘sexual release’. She shakes her head and blushes furiously. “Okay, maybe Pinkie wasn’t thinking of very viable solutions, heheheh...”

“No kidding.” I say, rolling my eyes. This unicorn is way too much of a shut-in if just the word can send her into a blush. That said, the blush looks nicer on her as a human than a pony. She’s got more of a ‘nervous adorkable girl-next-door’ look. No, bad brain, we don’t go there. “Anyways... what is there to do that doesn’t involve being near an edge?”

“Plenty, actually.” Rarity says, walking back to us, a pamphlet of some kind in her hand.

“Yeah? Like what?”

“Well, there’s cave exploration, cave tours, two separate museums of local stones, and something advertised as a ‘mini-gym’. It has prizes and the like. Ooh, and there’s something called a ‘Mystery Maze’ that has trainers and puzzles, something I think we’d all be able to enjoy together. There’s several things I think Twilight and I would enjoy, but most of them involve climbing and the like, so I don’t think you’d enjoy that... oh, and it says there’s an actual hotel here for once, though it specializes in... ah... well, it’s advertised as ‘alternative sleeping arrangements’, so I suppose we’d be best looking it over before we try it.”

“Yeah. And as for the climbing, I like it.” I explain, getting odd looks from the girls. “What? I do, I like it, I just don’t do well if I end up looking down is all. I mean, I’ve had my share of training how to climb a giant rock... who hasn’t?”

Beat.

“You girls have tried rock-climbing before... right?”

“Er, no... but I was referring to line-climbing. It’d be out over the main parts of the crevasse. Though now that I think about it, that does sound nice... if very difficult.”

“Yeah.” I say. “No chance of me doing it without a net, or blinders of some kind that keep me from looking down but if you need some help I could always teach you basic climbing. We’re bound to do it some time as trainers you know. It’s not all horizontal travel you know.”

“That sounds lovely, Anthony! I would love to sometime.” Rarity says, smiling.

“Alright, but you’re right about line climbing, not my cup of tea. Hey there’s an idea! If I can’t get blasted, I can probably get some sort of herbal relaxant. Those should be available here, right?”

“I didn’t see anything like that either...” Twilight says, nervously. “But we can always look, right?”

I give another long sigh. “Fine, but after that where’s that maze thing? I’m always up for a good puzzle.”

“Ah, about two layers up, and a few streets over. There’s elevators or climbing points, traveller’s choice.” Rarity says, reading directly from the pamphlet.

“Sounds good to me.” I say, getting up and stretching. “Come on, let’s find a place quick, my nerves are shot right now.”

Rarity nods and heads over to the counter and starts talking to Joy again. Soon enough Rarity comes back to us. “Well, there’s a few places to get some tea around here, but not a very large selection. We’ll just have to check around and hope we find what you’re looking for.”

I shake my head and crack my neck. “Wor-orks for me, just gotta wait on my team and we’ll be shoving off.” At this point, Joy comes over and hands me a tray of Pokéballs, a premiere ball, and a Depth ball barely fitting into the slot intended for spheres. I take by balls and thank Joy for the speedy work and we all head for the door.

We come to the first place Joy mentioned having tea and it’s a little corner shop,. More of a stall with a roof and seating places really. Nevertheless it looks decent enough.

“Hello hello hello!” the proprietor calls, a series of colored teakettles on a series of burners in the back. The whole village sways ever so slightly with every movement of the wind.

On the edge of the stall, a Murkrow sits, settled in. It’s got more of a low fedora look to its hat, rather than the normal, vaguely witchy-looking hat most do, and has a ‘coattails’ tail setup rather than the poof.

I sit down at one of the tiny tables and the girls do the same. “Something to help me relax a bit. Not used to heights.” I say. “Not too picky.”

Twilight looks at the menu printed above the stall and pauses, clearly not being used to the selection. “Uh, you wouldn’t happen to have some coffee... would you?”

The guy sighs and rolls his eyes. “No. But I do sell black tea and green tea.”

I rub my temple. “She’ll want black.” I say.

Rarity simply asks “What sorts of honey do you have to go with your tea?”

Speaking of honey in tea... “Rares, you ever tried blackberry honey in herbal tea?”

“Hmm, I can’t say I ever have, dear, most of home’s honey is clover-based.”

I shake my head and grin. “Clover’s good for putting on crackers and toast and such but you gotta try what you can get from other plants. Blackberry has a sweeter taste, but a bit more tart than apple.”

“Apple... honey?” Twilight asks, curiously.

“Yeah, it’s hard to get in big supply, especially since whenever it’s made people tend to snap it up the second they can. Kinda like cider season, but honey takes even longer to make so that’s likely why the Apple family doesn’t make honey.”

“Huh, I’ll have to ask Applejack about that in my next letter...” Twilight says, scratching her chin.

I nod. “Anyway, sorry to interrupt.” I say, aimed at the stall owner. “What do you have for honey?”

“Well, we have some pretty mixed Combee honey, and some Spicy Embee Honey, but I have to charge for that.”

I nod. “I’ll just go without, I’m here to relax. Not sure what exactly the honey will taste like, so I’m not sure if you should, Rarity but I guess since we have the money, I say ‘try it’ at least.”

“Well... I suppose I can do that.” Rarity says, and the guy nods. A quick transfer of money later, and our tea is being poured, and a tiny glass bottle of orange-red honey is set before Rarity.

“Careful there, it’s not like most honey flavors. It’s got more bite than cinnamon-infused stuff, and it literally warms you up. If you can get a bigger bottle, it’s great to have if you go into the mountains proper.” the tea-salesman advises. “But as you can guess, it’s expensive. Beezooka are really territorial about their honey.”

“Makes sense.” I nod and take my cup, and Twilight does the same. She doesn’t seem too enthused. “It’s not bad, but... I’ll just stick with coffee.”

I sigh. “To each their own. In the future though, this stuff is a lot better for you, if more likely to bite you later depending what it’s made with.” I return to my own cup and take a long drink, the warm tea heating me up and helping me relax. “It’s all plants, so it’s not something you’d want to make out of something like flax. And while mint tea can be good, if prepared wrong it can really upset your stomach. That stuff you’re drinking is probably the closest you’ll get to coffee right now though.”

Twilight nods. Meanwhile, Rarity has added a small drop to her tea, and takes a dainty sip, then adding another drop before declaring it perfect and working on drinking it.

I take a teensy bit of the honey and, putting a drop on my finger, suck on it for a bit. “Not very sweet and not all that sticky but-” I’m caught off-guard by the aftertaste and I note that it is indeed very hot. “Dang...” I take a sip of my own tea and it blends in with the honey, setting the ‘bare spice’ flavor to a warm buzz. “That’s some strong stuff, I can see why they’d want to defend it.” As I drink the tea, the combination with the honey actually does make me feel warm all over, like I’m sitting in the sun at the beach, or wearing a thick coat. It’s really good stuff!

I briefly think about buying a small jar of the stuff to carry with us, but given how expensive it is, I have a feeling doing that would deplete this guy’s stock of it, which would be pretty unfair, so I just make a note to buy some from a store where it’s not in such low stock. I finish my drink and sigh, feeling a lot better.

With a stretch I get up from my chair and, waiting for the girls to finish, we pay for the tea itself and leave, taking the rest of the little teeny jar with us. Only three drops out of it, but it seems like it’s already almost gone. A crazy thought crosses my mind. “Heh, maybe we could find one of those hives and get some of the honey ourselves.”

“I’m not too sure, Anthony. That merchant said Beezooka are territorial; they sound pretty dangerous.” Twilight warns.

“I’m just saying it might be fun to try as long as we’re careful, but whatever. Let’s see about that Mystery Maze.”

Comments

[ShadowStar0]

Hmm... Beezooka. A new line, or a new evolution to something existing? Honestly, I've always liked Vespiquen, but thought it was unfair that male Combee didn't evolve. Would this be your idea of a male evo?

[Quantum_Shift]

6898150
Nope, different line. Beezooka are the evolved form of Embee, both of which are bug/fire types who have a chance to have an ability that make them ALSO count as steel types, meaning there can be up to three factors in damage calculation from type alone.

[Booster Spice]

Yet more nicely coherent enough world building, especially of such larger areas, and possibly a call that all story gamers would have? Procedurally generated Pokemon forms colouring and patterns etc. Like Miiverse, given Nintendo owns that.

So, we have Pokken Tournament, Detective Pikachu, Miiverse, all being used to build the MMO Pokeworld, with Officer Jenny to take care of crush campers?

how Did Rarity see teh pattern on that shroomish? a glimpse through a knot hole in the log? reflected off Anthonys eyes? the eTech scanner working in a seriously impressive mode?

Acoraphonia, or Vertigo, really isnt fun at all. I can get weezy looking at a two story ladder.

[the-pieman]

6898250 I know! I hate climbing up a steep stairway and then looking down. I just can't stop imagining myself falling and breaking my neck or something... even if there's a guard rail.

[Quantum_Shift]

6898250

how Did Rarity see teh pattern on that shroomish? a glimpse through a knot hole in the log? reflected off Anthonys eyes? the eTech scanner working in a seriously impressive mode?

Just because Anthony didn't see it happen doesn't mean it didn't happen. Also, Rarity has a little sister; as an older sibling I can tell you that peripheral vision becomes very acute when you have a youngster in the house.

Especially when said youngster has a habit of grabbing your stuff.

[catfire13]

Kinda wanted the mystery maze to be like a mystery dungeon :3